Not all test score news is rosy

State test scores released this week delivered mostly good news to San Diego County schools that saw overall gains in everything from math and English to history and science. But some campuses generated disappointing results that educators are now working to explain.

The county’s 42 school districts are analyzing scores produced by 373,000 students who took the battery of exams earlier this year.

Some, including San Diego Unified, Oceanside, Poway, and Cajon Valley generated flat or slightly lower scores among second and/or third graders, a trend seen throughout California. A potential explanation educators are pursuing is whether the exam was changed for the earliest grades, said Ron Rode, who oversees testing for San Diego Unified.

Marking its fifth straight year of test score gains, 56 percent of San Diego Unified students met the state goal of proficient or better in English, a four-point gain from last year. Some 49 percent of students met the state goal in math, up three points from last year.

But not every campus can claim those gains. Among them:

• Fletcher Elementary School: A 12-point decline in the percentage of students who met the state goal in English, and a 7-point drop in the percentage of students to meet state math targets.

• Green Elementary School: A 10-point drop in those meeting the state’s English goal, and 6-point dip for math.

• Cadman Elementary School: A 9-point drop in meeting the math goal, and a 5-point dip for English.

• San Diego Metro Career and Tech School: a 29-point drop for those reaching the math goal, and 6 percent-dip for history.

“State test scores do tell us where to find students in need. When there is a dip, we try to start to find out why,” said Nellie Meyer, San Diego’s deputy superintendent of academics.

The district is working with principals and area superintendents, looking for ways to curb a downward trend before it’s established.

At least one campus — San Diego Metro Career and Tech — saw some scores drop following a dramatic two-year spike. The percentage of Met students who reached the state goal in English went from 44.7 in 2007 to 68.3 in 2008 to 70.5 in 2009 to 66.9 this year.

Administrators are less concerned about schools that halt a dramatic spike than they are with those who demonstrate a sharp drop.

Next week the district will host a back-to-school conference for principals. Educators will confer in sessions, giving principals a chance to collaborate and swap stories about successful and failed instruction techniques that may impact test scores.